Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is considering providing funds for financing construction of a bridge in Mykolaiv and a number of roads in the southern regions of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Viktor Dovhan announced this in a column for the CFTS portal.

Dovhan wrote that Japanese experts presented the preliminary results of the monitoring of infrastructure in the southern regions of Ukraine in Kyiv on 21 February. According to him, the experts identified the following as the priority road-construction projects in southern Ukraine:

- the project for construction of the Mykolaiv bridge;

- the Oleksandrivka-Kropyvnytskyi-Mykolaiv section of the Highway H-14;

- the Highway M-14 in the Kherson region, development of the Mykolaiv ring road;

- the Highway M-15 (Odesa-Reni, Romania border).

According to Dovhan, it is now important to update the project documentation for the Mykolaiv bridge, which has an estimated cost of USD 3.5 billion.

Dovhan said that construction of a new bridge in Mykolaiv would relieve traffic in the city center. The bridge will also improve the environmental situation in the city because it will be located outside the city and provide a link between the major industrial centers and seaports of Ukraine.

As the CFTS earlier reported, JICA is ready to consider providing loans for construction of a bridge in Zaporizhia. Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian announced this last summer.